A conventional vehicle headlight comprises a housing which is closed at the front by a cover lens, and which contains a reflector with the lamp mounted at the base of the reflector. In order to prevent the direct emission of light by the lamp towards the front that would dazzle drivers of vehicles travelling in the opposite direction, especially where the headlight is so designed as to emit a cut off beam (for example a cruising beam or a fog penetrating beam) which is adapted to avoid such dazzling, it is known to equip the lamp with a mask or occulter for masking direct light, so that the light emitted by the filament or arc of the lamp is prevented from reaching the cover lens directly, and the environment outside the vehicle. The mask causes the light radiation to be directed towards the whole surface area of the reflector. It also enables the light to be concealed, for aesthetic reasons, when the headlight is extinguished.
In the prior art, the mask generally has a lateral portion in the form of a frustoconical skirt, having an aperture adjacent to the lamp and held in front of the lamp by means of at least of one fastening lug which connects it to the reflector. In front of this frustoconical part, there may be fitted a front piece or styling embellisher, the purpose of which is to improve the appearance of the extinguished headlight and also, optionally, to assist in the masking of the radiation. The means for mounting this front piece on the frustoconical part are usually of the snap fitting type, or the type having deformable fastening lugs.
Such mounting means have to two main disadvantages, namely that, firstly, they are not easy to realize in practice, and secondly they make it difficult to fix a styling embellisher or front member if the latter is made of glass, which cannot conveniently be extended by the fastening tongues or lugs that are necessary for the two types of fastening mentioned above.